Blog
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Pingy thing made from (I think) cable sleeves
Instagram filter used: Lo-fi
Photo taken at: Hampton Inn & Suites Halifax Dartmouth
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still rather more proud of this code than I should be
Years ago, I wrote this tiny subroutine in PostScript:
/box { % draw a box given lower left and upper right corner coordinates  2 copy moveto  3 index exch lineto  3 -1 roll 2 index lineto  exch lineto  closepath } defAll it does is define a rectangular path given by four numbers. So to draw a box from (0,0) to (100,50), you’d say
0 0 100 50 box stroke
This code still pleases me because:
- it accepts arguments in a sensible order
- it uses no local variables, relying purely on the stack
- no spare values have to be popped from the stack at any time.
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Yeah, we’re like that …
Instagram filter used: Amaro
Photo taken at: Hampton Inn & Suites Halifax Dartmouth
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A bit too much Randy Bachman
Richard “Friendly Rich” Marsella noted that CBC Radio’s Vinyl Tap with Randy Bachman features a lot of music by … Randy Bachman. If you’ve got your own radio show “to play [your] favourite songs and tell stories from [your] life on the road and in the studio“, you might want to be a bunch heavier on your influences than your own actual work. It doesn’t seem that way with Randy Bachman, though.
In the 49 unique editions of Vinyl Tap broadcast in the last year, 27 of them feature his own music and/or performances. So in addition to his CBC pay for the show, he’s getting royalties, too. Rich puts it a little better, if a lot more invective filled:
Bring back quality broadcasting from people behind the scenes who are hard-working and informed…not merely has-been rock stars with egos larger than Winnipeg.
Given that Mr. Bachman constantly plays his own music on this show, receives royalties for the theme song, and might also be receiving ACTRA payments for incessantly wanking on his guitar between songs, CBC should consider whether or not this is a conflict of interest, as a public broadcaster.
Richard’s started a petition: Let’s petition to remove Randy’s Vinyl Tap from the CBC: No more BTO on the CBC! I’ve signed it, and I hope you’ll consider signing it too.
I ran some stats on the show’s playlists (thanks, CBC!), and Richard sure has a point. Here’s a list of all the shows from the last year, showing just the first Bachman-item on the show:
Broadcast Song Performer Album/Concert Randy Bachman credit 2011/03/04 Takin’ Care Of Business Bachman-Turner Overdrive Best Of Bachman-Turner Overdrive Live Composer 2011/03/05 2011/03/12 2011/03/19 2011/03/26 When Friends Fall Out Guess Who American Woman Composer 2011/04/02 2011/04/09 Undun Kurt Elling Nightmoves Composer 2011/04/16 2011/04/23 We Gotta Change Playlist For The Planet Composer 2011/04/30 Repo Man Repo Man Composer 2011/05/07 I’m Happy Just To Dance With You Bachman Cummings Jukebox Guitar 2011/05/14 Who Do You Love Bachman Cummings Jukebox Guitar 2011/05/21 2011/05/29 2011/06/04 Laughing Guess Who: Anthology Composer 2011/06/11 2011/06/18 2011/06/25 Undun Kurt Elling Nightmoves Composer 2011/07/01 Raise A Little Hell Trooper Hot Shots Producer 2011/07/09 Takin Care Of Business Randy’s Vinyl Tap – Guitarology 101 Composer 2011/07/16 Blue Collar Bachman-Turner Overdrive Anthology Producer 2011/07/23 2011/07/30 2011/08/06 2011/08/13 2011/08/20 2011/09/10 2011/09/17 2011/09/24 2011/10/01 Closing Time Closing Time Composer 2011/10/08 Lenny’s Warmup And Improvisation Of Autumn Leaves Lenny Breau Cabin Fever Producer 2011/10/15 Suite Theam Composer, Performer 2011/10/22 No Time Guess Who American Woman Composer 2011/11/05 2011/11/12 Undun Kurt Elling Nightmoves Composer 2011/11/19 Shotgun Rider Bachman-Turner Overdrive Freeways Producer 2011/11/26 Blue Sky Day Lindsay Ell Consider This Composer 2011/12/03 Day Off Michael Carey Composer 2011/12/10 2011/12/17 Geh Zoag Ma Doch Die Ding Spider Murphy Gang Geh Zoag Ma Doch Die Ding Composer 2011/12/23 Takin’ Care Of Christmas Takin’ Care Of Christmas Composer 2011/12/30 You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet Bachman-Turner Overdrive Anthology Composer 2012/01/14 2012/01/21 Any Road Randy Bachman Any Road Composer 2012/01/28 2012/02/11 Walk Bachman Cummings Jukebox Guitar 2012/02/18 Who Do You Love Bachman Cummings Jukebox Guitar 2012/02/25 2012/03/03 Of course, when anyone mentions BTO, I can’t help but think of
… which is a whole heaping helping of morissettian irony unto itself. The whole Smashie and Nicey thing was supposedly a factor in Matthew Bannister’s decision to fire the ageing and irrelevant DJs from BBC Radio 1 in the 1990s. I wouldn’t dream of making any inference from that …
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yay! a completed SSTV QSO!
Yay! KA4UPI in Dublin, GA heard me, and replied.
Thanks to KE5RS‘s Live SSTV page, I can see what I was sending – or at least, how it was received in Leander, TX by KE5RS:
This was sent in response to this:
Here’s what I send:
compared to what was heard in Texas:
Choosing images to send is difficult. The number of cheesecake images is a bit distressing. For good, free images, I use Wikimedia Commons; the one I’ve used for my CQ call is File:Burrowing owl smile.jpg.
SSTV is a fun little mode. I was saddened to hear that its creator, Copthorne Macdonald VY2CM, passed away late last year.
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SSTV is go (sorta)
Luc gave a really good introductory talk about SSTV last night at the radio club. I’d had no luck at all running qsstv on this Ubuntu box, so I thought I’d try MMSSTV under Wine … and it worked!
I picked this image up from N5HIC on 14.230 MHz. Sure, I need to fix the sync, so my images aren’t slanted.I also don’t seem to be able to transmit, since it fails with a “Can’t open sound card (3)” error.But it’s a start!
